United Way Romania – Adventure through reading

All children have the right to education, regardless of the environment they come from, in order to develop at the level of their native potential. Unfortunately, the economic situation of the families they come from and the limitations of the communities in which they grow up make their journey difficult. The “Reading Adventure” project aims to prevent and combat the risk of functional illiteracy among 240 vulnerable children in 4 communities in Timiș County (Pesac, Satchinez, Biled, Bencecu de Sus) by ensuring access to specific activities of literacy. The project addresses an integrated method of intervention, acting on children and parents and teachers, to educate and mobilize the whole community in order to achieve lasting results and increased impact. 

Project duration

August 2022 – June 2023

Who we are and what we do

Since 2004, United Way Romania (UWRo) has been supporting social programs and initiatives that improve the lives of children, adults and the elderly in need. Our work focuses on three directions that underpin a thriving community: access to quality education, good health care, and enough income to support a family. UWRo works as a community organizer, mobilizing an extensive network of community partners – NGOs, companies, public institutions, civil society leaders, donors and volunteers – to coordinate their efforts to make a collective impact. UWRo has been operating since 2009 in Timișoara, supporting the development of 35 projects in the fields of education, health and social integration (over 4,500 beneficiaries). The UWRo team from Timișoara is made up of 4 employees and 4 volunteer members of the Local Advisory Board, and is based on strong partnerships. In UWRo’s vision, when a child drops out of school, that is not the child’s problem, but the problem of the community in which he lives. UWRo’s education programs involve all the crucial factors in raising the child (parents, teachers, key members of the community, volunteers) to work together to solve this problem. Children from vulnerable families are assisted to go to school and get better results – they receive help with homework and educational kits, as well as hot meals, and are involved in sports and extracurricular activities, in educational activities, the importance of positive parental education, domestic violence and children’s rights, etc. At the  Teachers’ Academy meetings we discuss the most appropriate pedagogical approaches when it comes to disadvantaged children and we lay the foundations for a real and constructive communication between parents and teachers. In 2021 UWRo supported over 1000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds  in Timiș County, to continue their studies and not to drop out of school.